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You might want to contact Lowe's and ask them. Chances are it was most likely made by a company no one can pronounce in a city no one can pronounce in china. Personally there are only 2 auto dark helmets I care to spend my hard earned cash on and that would be Miller's big window elite and Optrel's satellite. Sure they cost more but when you have a problem there is product support available. My big window elite is now 6 years old and never has given me a problem and I think I've gone through 4 sets of batteries in that time period and it's used almost daily. Other than the batteries I've had to replace the head gear once and that was because when I took it apart to clean it I lost a part.

Comment

I have a Kobalt welding hood like the one in your picture. I have used it just about every working day for 4 years now and have never had a problem with it. As I understood it, in articles about the hood, it has no batteries. It receives its power from the solar cells. My fellow welder at the shop owns a Hobart and has to replace AAA batteries occaisionally. I can find no place on my hood that would hold any access to batteries. The welding lens won't even come apart without breaking it. I have used it for 4 years and have not had to change a battery yet

Comment

Repair your Kobalt Helmet..! Why waste money and buy another? I did the work for you.

Greetings,

Here, I had a one of these helmets at my shop, my partner found for $5
So many people out there have helped me in the past that I had to do the same
and share the KARMA.

There are batteries in there, you can't charge air I said to myself. So here it is.

** PLEASE READ - I'm not responsible for any damage or injury as a result of this procedure. If your not confident that you can accomplish this procedure then please do not attempt to repair yourself. Plastic emits harmful toxins when heated, work in a well venilated area. Proceed at your own risk. **

Heat the exacto blade up till red hot then while its hot still carefully score the lines where the unit is "Glued" together. You will have to make a few passes like this while re-heating the blade in between passes.

** only make 1/16" cuts each pass. The LCD panel and Solar Panel are right along each edge top and bottom. You do not want to break the glass! **

After a couple of passes you can CAREFULLY start to pry open the corners on top and bottom. the case on side has a flange inside. Use the edge of the plastic frame to pry against. DO NOT pry with anymore than just about 1/8" of the screw driver blade inside of the case. Just get a corner started and you will see what I mean.

If the case is hard to pry apart after getting a corner started just run the hot exacto over that spot with light pressure. You do not want to cut too deep. keep working around the outside perimeter. On one of long edges you can pivot off of it. So do not cut too deep on one of the long edges like shown here. I broke a small section in 2 spots and learned to work the edge with hot exacto and repeating till it split.

Once opened you will see 2 BATTERIES. These can be ordered online from most electronic retailers. You will need to open and retrieve the battery specs Voltage, mL (milli amps) etc. Sanyo is best "re-chargeable" brand I have used.

Hope this helps the fellow welder out there who's been hit by the US Economic Condition. By doing yourself you will appreciate the helmet far more than just going to the store and shelling out more cash. Use the money to buy some Miller welding consumeables or put on good ol' American BBQ's for your family or friends. If you find the information useful, please share with other struggling welder out there.

Comment

Repair your Kobalt Helmet..! Why waste money and buy another? I did the work for you.

Greetings,

Here, I had a one of these helmets at my shop, my partner found for $5
So many people out there have helped me in the past that I had to do the same
and share the KARMA.

There are batteries in there, you can't charge air I said to myself. So here it is.

** PLEASE READ - I'm not responsible for any damage or injury as a result of this procedure. If your not confident that you can accomplish this procedure then please do not attempt to repair yourself. Plastic emits harmful toxins when heated, work in a well venilated area. Proceed at your own risk. **

Remove LCD panel unit from helmet. Release 4 plastic tabs to pop out unit. There may only be 2 tabs. Remove 1 lg gray knob from adjuster to reveal a nut. Remove nut then remove LCD assembly from blue hood.

Heat the exacto blade up till red hot then while its hot still carefully score the lines where the unit is "Glued" together. You will have to make a few passes like this while re-heating the blade in between passes.

** only make 1/16" cuts each pass. The LCD panel and Solar Panel are right along each edge top and bottom. You do not want to break the glass! **

After a couple of passes you can CAREFULLY start to pry open the corners on top and bottom. the case on side has a flange inside. Use the edge of the plastic frame to pry against. DO NOT pry with anymore than just about 1/8" of the screw driver blade inside of the case. Just get a corner started and you will see what I mean.

If the case is hard to pry apart after getting a corner started just run the hot exacto over that spot with light pressure. You do not want to cut too deep. keep working around the outside perimeter. On one of long edges you can pivot off of it. So do not cut too deep on one of the long edges like shown here. I broke a small section in 2 spots and learned to work the edge with hot exacto and repeating till it split.

Once opened you will see 2 BATTERIES. These can be ordered online from most electronic retailers. You will need to open and retrieve the battery specs Voltage, mL (milli amps) etc. Sanyo is best "re-chargeable" brand I have used.

Use cut strips of electrical tape to seal the frame back together then insert back into helmet.

Hope this helps the fellow welder out there who's been hit by the US Economic Condition. By doing yourself you will appreciate the helmet far more than just going to the store and shelling out more cash. Use the money to buy some Miller welding consumeables or put on good ol' American BBQ's for your family or friends. If you find the information useful, please share with other struggling welder out there.

Comment

As far as I know, all of the autodarkening helmets have batteries whether you can see them or not. In the more expensive brands, they are easily replaceable. In the less expensive brands (e.g. Harbor Freight) you have to open the glued plastic case to get to them. The batteries are not really charged by the sunlight or welding arc; the light just supplements the batteries so they last longer. In another solar powered device at home there is a super capacitor that stores electricity generated when the sun shines, even though there are also batteries in the device. I don't know if welding helmets have super capacitors. At any rate, since access to the batteries is not easy, it makes sense to wire in an external battery pack with two AAA batteries. Those batteries inside the helmet aren't anything special other than that they're small enough to fit inside the case. Battery holders are available from Radio Shack. This repair with external batteries worked on a Harbor Freight helmet for someone in my welding class.

If you have the receipt from the store, they might be willing to replace it. Those helmets should last around 2-3 years of use until the batteries are run down and three months is awfully short. There could be another problem in the electronics that caused the batteries to run down, or they could have just been defective batteries. If the store won't replace it, you have nothing to lose by opening the case.

Comment

I've been using this helmet for over 2 years, got it as a gift in 12/10. It gets used for a dozen hours a week at the minimum. Today I started getting flashed everytime. Had to use my backup 12 shade helmet.

Gonna try to cut it open and replace the batteries. It's been a really nice helmet.

Comment

I've been using this helmet for over 2 years, got it as a gift in 12/10. It gets used for a dozen hours a week at the minimum. Today I started getting flashed everytime. Had to use my backup 12 shade helmet.

Gonna try to cut it open and replace the batteries. It's been a really nice helmet.

I didn't have to cut it open, it came apart with a thin blade screw driver. The batteries in my helmet was a CR2430, I have the replacements on the way. They appear to be soldered to the battery and the circuit board.

Comment

I have a Kobalt welding hood like the one in your picture. I have used it just about every working day for 4 years now and have never had a problem with it. As I understood it, in articles about the hood, it has no batteries. It receives its power from the solar cells. My fellow welder at the shop owns a Hobart and has to replace AAA batteries occaisionally. I can find no place on my hood that would hold any access to batteries. The welding lens won't even come apart without breaking it. I have used it for 4 years and have not had to change a battery yet

After over 6 years of using this hood just about every day all day long, it has finally gone out on me. I have found that it does contain 2 lithium ion batteries that can be replaced, although you have to cut the case open and the battery terminals are spot welded to the batteries, they can be replaced with new ones and the casing glued back together. This hood and I have done a lot of welding together and I would like to keep it as long as I can. The headgear is not available for replacement, so I modified my hood to use Hobart headgear which is easily available from the local Tractor Supply store. I like the feature this hood has of always being ready to go without having to turn it on. My partners Hobart hood sometimes gives him a bit of flash blindness when he forgets to turn his on after it has timed out and reset itself. I can leave mine on my welding table for an hour and go right back to it without having to turn it back on.